In Africa III

In Africa
 III
China, India, Maasai, The Peninsula

On March 25, 2013, visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping made a speech entitled "Remaining Reliable Friends and Faithful Partners Forever" at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Center in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Prior to his speech, President Xi Jinping turned over a ceremonial golden key to the convention center to Tanzanian President Kikwete. The Chinese funded the construction. It is like that everywhere here in Tanzania and elsewhere in Africa.

Julius Nyerere International Convention Center

Dignitaries leave after formal dedication of Convention Center

China’s presence is unmistakable. The Chinese fund construction of many of the new high-rise buildings in Dar es Salaam. They are building roads (as is the US) and improving rail systems, and they have agreements with the government regarding minerals. Providing aid to developing countries is not something limited to the Chinese. The list is long of international agencies providing support to government agencies and economic projects. The United States Agency for international Development (USAID), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the Danish agency (DANIDA), and the Swedish agency (SIDA), and the German agency (GTZ), and the British agency (DFID), The European Union, the UN, through its development arm, UNDP, The Japanese, and the list goes on. The developed world needs modern, well functioning partners among the less developed countries. This is generally done through institutional capacity building, such as what I do in my work. The Chinese have not as yet moved their assistance to this level. The Chinese mining and construction efforts are done using Chinese workers brought to Tanzania from China. It remains to be seen if this importation of a workforce is being done to provide labor for specific projects or whether it will be a permanent resettlement effort as many suspect.

European Union Building, home to DFID and other European Offices

The seventeen-story building that collapsed in downtown Dar es Salaam recently, killing more than 25 people and injuring dozens, was not owned by the Chinese. Chinese construction workers were ordered by the Chinese Embassy to assist with the recovery and cleanup effort, but the building was apparently a joint project between the state-owned National Housing Corporation and Ladha Construction Limited under a private-public partnership arrangement. Ladha, may in fact be an Indian company.

Collapsed Building in Dar es Salaam Reuters photo

Resettlement of large numbers of people to Africa is not a new concept. There are Tanzanian-born Indians who are fourth generation Tanzanians. I had lunch with a young Canadian of Indian heritage whose parents emigrated from Tanzania to Canada. He proffered that the British relocated Indians to Africa around the turn of the last century as part of their colonial strategy. I don’t know that to be true, but a large number of people left India for Africa around that time. Idi Amin, during his reign in Uganda in 1972, deported all the Indians and Pakistanis in Uganda on 90 days notice. The United Kingdom and Canada were recipients of many of these displaced persons.

But the Indians never left Tanzania and are a very influential part of the economy of the country. Indians are a merchant class in Tanzania owning many of the retail establishments, restaurants, and apartment buildings. In addition to having accumulated much wealth over the generations in Tanzania, the Indian diaspora has maintained connection to their roots in India providing an additional source of investment capitol to Tanzania. Like most European and Asian countries where foreign populations have immigrated, the Indians in Tanzania have not inter-married with the Tanzanian locals. They maintain their own culture and usually language, although they speak English and Swahili fluently.

When Tanzania achieved independence, the first president and the man considered the father of the country, Julius Nyerere, made a great effort to create a socialist state with a strong emphasis on national identity, common language (Swahili), and an attempt to inter mix the numerous cultures into a common Tanzanian culture. Tanzania has perhaps 50 tribes or more, yet today, tribal identity is more akin to what exists in the United States or Canada. There is in fact more of a national identity in Tanzania than other African countries. A look to neighboring Rwanda bears this out. I was at a function given by a government agency to honor its new employees. One of the fellows there asked what my ethnic background was. I said I really didn’t have an ethnic identify other than American since I was mixed. The man was a bit confused. I then explained that my grandfather was English, my grandmother Irish and Swedish, my grandmother on my father’s side was Polish, my grandfather on my father’s side Polish and French. Another fellow at the table then understood and began to explain how it might be in Tanzania with grandparents, great grandparents, etc. belonging to various different tribes, several of which he named.

There is one exception to this tendency of Tanzanian tribes to inter marry, that is the Maasai. The Maasai are noted as warriors and herds people. Their territory spans both Kenya and Tanzania and they are the only people who are allowed to move freely across the border between the two countries, particularly in the Serengeti region. Leaving Dar es Salaam and going into the countryside, the Maasai soon appear, herding cattle along the roads and across the expansive savannah. They are still largely a nomadic people, in spite of efforts by Tanzanian and Kenyan governments to settle them.

Maasai at Sea Cliff Hotel

Maasai wear traditional dress called Matavuvale. It consists of a colored sheet wrapped around the body. Although blue and black are seen, red checked or striped cloth is preferred. White sandals are popular among the Maasai, but they are better known for making sandals from old car tires. Although they have maintained their traditions and separate identity, many Maasai have migrated to the cities including Dar es Salaam. They work in hotels as doormen and mostly in parking lots as informal security guards working for tips. In addition to the traditional dress, they carry the traditional Maasai club, walking stick, and long knife. Maasai are very much a fascination for tourists and therefore have attracted enterprising impersonators. Generally tall and thin, pierced and elongated earlobes can also help identify true Maasai. There are a few in the center of the city, but on the Msasani Peninsula, there are many.

Maasai at Sea Cliff Hotel

View of point of Peninsula from Sea Cliff Hotel

In many developing countries expatriates tend to gravitate to a common area. Dar es Salaam in that respect is no different. In Dar, the expats tend to live on or near the Msasani Peninsula. Although the embassies are a bit scattered, most being in the downtown area where the government offices are located, the residences for the Ambassadors are nearly all in Oysterbay at the base of the Msasani Peninsula or in Masaki on the peninsula itself. The residences of the ambassadors tend to be along Toure Drive facing the Indian Ocean. The views are spectacular and the residences opulent. The Peninsula is a ten to fifteen minute drive from the city center with no traffic and a half hour or during rush hour. Apartment buildings are springing up like wild flowers, or perhaps like weeds. Prices for housing are high and rising. We have a $3500 per month housing allowance and could scarcely find an appropriate place to live. The problem is two fold: Embassies and oil/gas companies. Neither worries about cost, rather they want a Western style living environment with security. As our driver says, “Masaki is for Msungu.”

Slipway boat yard - Doubletree Hotel in background

Restaurant and shops at the Slipway

Racing around the bouys off the yachtclub

Bridge from the Slipway Hotel to the Slipway shops with the bay beyond

The Slipway where boats are launched and hauled

When there exists that concentration of expatriates, there follows, restaurants and shopping opportunities. At the Oysterbay Shopping Center there are both, including a hardware and marine store; also at the Sea Cliff hotel in the Village Market area, and Shoppers Plaza in Masaki and in Micochini, and the Slipway shopping center next to the Doubletree Hotel. Slipway is named for the slipway used to launch boats at the boatyard found there. These are all places where supermarkets can be found with most things expatriates are accustomed to buying in a familiar environment. Souvenir shops, restaurants and other appropriate attractions are also in these locations. There is a deli or two, the South African Bucher, the Garden Market for produce if you don’t find it along the streets and roads from local cart vendors. And of course there is the Yacht Club with restricted membership and races around the buoys every Wednesday evening and Saturday afternoon. All of this is at a price that far exceeds the cost of living anywhere we have previously lived, including Key West, Florida. As is usually the case, very little trickles down to the common-man Tanzanian.

Until the Next Connection,
Dan